Bhushan Steel's ex-promoters deny any dealings with Iqbal Mirchi

NEW DELHI: Former promoters of Bhushan Steel on Wednesday denied any dealings with fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim's close aide Iqbal Mirchi, saying they had considered buying a Mumbai property of the narcotics smuggler in 2010 but dropped the plans after an unfavourable report came during due diligence. In a statement, the promoters termed the allegations of having financial dealings with Mirchi as "baseless", saying "neither Bhushan Steel nor any of its promoters have been involved in any such situation."

"We would like to reiterate here that all these allegations are baseless and the company nor its promoters have ever had any dealings with Iqbal Mirchi. In 2010, Sur Buildcon Pvt Ltd (now Globus Realinfra Pvt Ltd) was contemplating to buy a property on the 4th floor of C J house Worli Mumbai for which Bombay based lawyers were engaged for carrying out due diligence.

"However, the due diligence report did not come to be favorable therefore the purchase of the property was never made," the statement said.


The law firm, Little & Co, advised not to go ahead with the right to purchase the property and "hence it was dropped immediately", it said.

"With respect to the (Bank) Demand Draft of Rs 19 crore, it was prepared on request of their lawyers as an expression of financial strength, however, when the due diligence did not turn out favorable the DD was canceled, and no agreement/transaction was made," it said, adding the law firm Little & Co, and advocates Ajay Khatlawala and Ruchi Khatlawala can be reached out for further clarification.

The statement came on reports of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) summoning Neeraj Singal, former promoter of Bhushan Steel, on Friday to inquire about financial transactions between him and Iqbal Memon, aka Iqbal Mirchi, who died in 2013.

Reports said the ED wanted to ask Singal about Rs 20 crore allegedly transferred from one of his companies to Mirchi in 2010-11.

"It has been observed that there has been an attempt to malign the reputation of the promoters of Bhushan Steel through speculative information circulated and printed. Some of the reports claim that there has been financial transaction between the promoters and Junaid Iqbal Memon, son of Iqbal Mohammed Memon, alias Iqbal Mirchi, a close aide of gangster Dawood Ibrahim," the statement said, adding "baseless and unverified news" could cause the promoter "immense unwarranted humiliation and loss of reputation."